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Today, we are excited to introduce 12 new developers to the Alexa Champions program, which is a recognition program that honors the most engaged developers and contributors to the Alexa community. Champions are chosen by first being nominated by an Alexa team member. Then their contributions are stack ranked against other nominees, and the top nominees get invited to the program. Champions have the opportunity to participate in private beta programs, direct communication lines to Alexa evangelists, special opportunities for their skills to be featured, and more.

It’s a privilege to reveal our newest group of Alexa Champions. Their contributions span three continents and collectively they have published innovative skills, developed open-source projects, and shared their knowledge around the world about how to build with Alexa. Visit the Champions gallery to read about their contributions to the voice community.

Meet the Newest Alexa Champions

Adva Levin is a voice-first pioneer and head of Pretzel Labs, which is a voice studio that designs playful and educational Alexa skills for kids.

Heather Luna is a technology industry veteran and speaker. She uses her own experiences with Alexa to support, encourage, and engage both new and experienced developers.

Hidetaka Okamoto is a developer, speaker, organizer, and Alexa group moderator in Japan. He has helped develop products that make cutting-edge use of AWS and Alexa.

Jess Williams is CEO and voice designer of Opearlo, a studio that produces Alexa skills in a wide range of categories. She is also a Voice Design Tutor for an online learning platform, and regularly speaks at conferences on her learnings working in voice.

John Gillilan is a developer and creative producer with extensive experience in music and audio. He continues to explore where voice design intersects with digital culture.

Kesha Williams is an award-winning software engineer and has mentored thousands of developers around the world. She is a lecturer, innovation team leader, and role model for women in voice design.

Liam Sorta is the director of the development studio MagicVoice.io, which produces a VR game using Alexa as an interfacing tool. He also moderates a 6,000-strong online community for game developers.

Ralf Eggert is an experienced web developer and founder of Travello, an agency focused on building travel communities and web apps. Since 2017, his company has also been dedicated to voice design with Alexa.

Tim Kahle is a digital media marketing expert and co-founder of 169 Labs, one of the first voice design agencies in Germany. He is also a voice-first conference organizer and podcast host.

Tom Hewitson is a conversation designer, speaker, and founder of voice games studio Labworks.io.

Tomoharu Ito is a Japanese developer, event organizer, and mentor in the Netherlands. He is committed to promoting voice design using Alexa among the Japanese-language AWS community.

Travis Teague is CTO of a Long-Range Low-Power IoT solutions provider. He is also a mentor, organizer, and moderator for the Hackster.io Alexa group in Houston, Texas.